Weapon naming in fantasy literature

[redarm]

With Perrin naming his hammer Mah'alleinir I got to thinking about other weapons throughout all the fantasy novels I have read. It seems pretty common for our heros to name their sidearms. Remember Gandalf's Glamdring and Bilbo's Sting? How about Chance from the Malazan Book of the Fallen? The great Excalibur of Arthurian lore comes t mind as well. I know there are many others out there that I can't remember. So help me out. If you can think of a weapon used by a hero from fantasy lit that was given a name share it please.

 

Also does anyone remember any other weapons from WoT that were named? I don't remember any. Is Mah'alleinir the only one?

[Red2111]

well theres Callallandor of course. thats all i can recall from the WoT series.

 

 

unless you mean that crazy Aiel no one talks about who named his spears "Stab", "Rip" & "Tear"

 

 

 

in ASoF&I Ned named his sword Ice.

[redarm]

Duh! How could I forget Callandor. I suppose it's because I don't really think of it as a weapon in the traditional sense. But good one. And yes, Ned's sword was called Ice before it was melted down and reforged.

[Basel Gill]

Drizzt named his scimitars Twinkle and Icingdeath. I don't think Roland Deschain's guns had names.

[Vambram]

Drizzt named his scimitars Twinkle and Icingdeath. I don't think Roland Deschain's guns had names.

 

 

Also, Wulfgar (one of Drizzt's companions) had a very powerful magical war hammer named Aegis-Fang.

 

 

 

[Majsju]

Arthur Hawkwing (and now Rands) sword Justice.

[Hallow]

Dragnipur springs to mind.

[Red2111]

Arthur Hawkwing (and now Rands) sword Justice.

 

 

you know, i shoulda posted this considering i just re-read the battle of Falme in tGH a few days ago

 

*palmforehead*

[dscott8]

The original model for Callandor was Excalibur, King Arthur's sword. The Norse god Thor's hammer was named Mjollnir, fairly close to Perrin's hammer's name.

 

In Fred Saberhagen's Book of Swords, there are twelve named swords, each with its own magical property:

 

Coinspinner

Doomgiver

Dragonslicer

Farslayer

Mindsword

Shieldbreaker

Sightblinder

Soulcutter

Stonecutter

Townsaver

Wayfinder

Woundhealer

 

 

And of course there's always the Vorpal Blade that slew the Jabberwock.

Edited April 10, 2011 by Gaidin Poindexter

[Mongoose]

A lot of the Norse and Northern European mythologies included named weapons.

Tolkien also had a few, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Middle-earth_weapons_and_armour

[OptimusPrime]

Damn, someone beat me to naming Drizzts swords!

 

I want to name a weapon 'Retribution' in my book.

[atlas74]

Seems a qualification of the genre...even Stephen King in The Eyes of the Dragon had an arrow named "Foe Hammer". I can see the "slight" resemblance of the arrow to Tolkien's sword Glamdring...

[Talmanes]

In Warbreaker, Vasher's 'sword' is Nightblood.

[Mr Ares]

In Fred Saberhagen's Book of Swords, there are twelve named swords, each with its own magical property:

Stonecutter

Is the magic property of this sword rigging every Oscar night? Keeping Atlantis off the maps? The Martians under wraps?

 

In The Steel Remains, Ringil's sword is called Ravensfriend. Martin has a few more besides those already mentioned: Oathkeper, Widow's Wail, Heartsbane, Needle and Lady Forlorn can all be added to the list. Malazan also gives us Grief/Vengeance.

 

Edit: Also, Terminus Est, Severian's sword from The Book of the New Sun.

Edited April 11, 2011 by Mr Ares

[Red2111]

OMG how could i forget Arya's Needle!!!! and the reason why she chooses that name is great

 

Damn, someone beat me to naming Drizzts swords!

 

I want to name a weapon 'Retribution' in my book.

 

if you have a weapon like that, then you have to a good history either with the character that weilds it or the sword itself. using the word Retibution, i think of an avenger or rightous revenge. take lan, i could see him naming his sword Retribution; because he's using it to avenge the fallen Malkeri *nods*

 

 

so you could have this weapon come to those who need to be an avenger, maybe make it a myth surroundign the weapon. that could be an interesting story angle

[Tiinker]

Well ofcourse there's Brisingr.. But that book was totally lame so we can discount that.

 

Aragorn's sword Anduril and Hrunting from the Beowolf stories also come to mind.

[Erunion]

Middle-Earth is full of named weapons. There are dozens of them there.

 

@ Talmanes - Sure, you could say that Nightblood is a named weapon, but, well, it's different. Not sure if it counts in this discussion...

[Basel Gill]

In Fred Saberhagen's Book of Swords, there are twelve named swords, each with its own magical property:

Stonecutter

Is the magic property of this sword rigging every Oscar night? Keeping Atlantis off the maps? The Martians under wraps?

 

HA! I did not even catch that!

[Paradox]

Damn, someone beat me to naming Drizzts swords!

 

I want to name a weapon 'Retribution' in my book.

 

And Brent Weeks beat ya (in Night Angel trilogy) to naming a weapon (sword) Retribution, sorry.

 

The Adem in Wise Man's Fear have a few named blades.

[OptimusPrime]

Damn, someone beat me to naming Drizzts swords!

 

I want to name a weapon 'Retribution' in my book.

 

And Brent Weeks beat ya (in Night Angel trilogy) to naming a weapon (sword) Retribution, sorry.

 

Arbitrator instead then! Thanks